An AttackthatChanged theWorld

December 7.1941: Pearl Harbor I Z ~M

By Jennifer S. Blandford

Fifty years ago, December 7, a quiet Sunday morning, America suffered asurpriseattackthat cannotbe forgottenby herpeople.

Shortlybefore8a.m.asquadron of 350 Japanese fighters, divebombers, and torpedoplanessweptin from the north and destroyed six American battleships,163aircraftand 2,403soldierswhile wounding 1,178.

Most ofthis damage occurred within thefirst 20minutesofa two-hour attack.

The event was the attack on Pearl Harbor, and it brought America intoWorld War II. This day has been calledbymany,"the dayof infamy"or"bloodySunday."

Following Pearl Harbor, thewar carriedon for several yearswithheavy fightingthroughoutmuch of Southeast Asiaand thousandsof casualitiesonbothsides.America finallyended itafterdroppingtwosurpriseatomicbombs on the Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki Unfortunately, America's surprise attacks wiped out thousands ofinnocentJapanese civilians.

From the moment afterthe firstexplosionand through thepast50years, many patriotshave debated over how a nation asgreatasAmerica could have allowed herself tobe caught so off-guard by a lesserfoe, such as Japan

The fact is that America was too preoccupied with Europe's bold fascists to pay any attention to Tokyo's imperialists

Overthe years,the surpriseattackhas beenturnedinto a kind-of heroic defeat forAmerica Stories have been told of scalded men swimming through burning oilto rescue theirbleeding comrades as they drowned inthe harborand of gallant soldiers firing round afterround of ammunition into the sky with the hopes of downing a soaringJapaneseplane.

But the fact remains that for America, the attack on Pearl Harbor was a devastating and humiliating event. People seldom forget, nor do they want to forget, such calamities.

The Pearl Harbor event was the firsttime when the entire world stood still. It was a time when people around the country were experiencing the same emotions brought aboutby horror, fear, and disbelief. Most Americans livingat thetimecan pinpointexactly where they were and what they were doing when they first heard thenews oftheattack.

Today many Japanese are not ashamed of the Pearl Harbor incident, but many feelthatwhat is past is past and should be forgotten. In fact, most Japanese history textbooksdonotincludethe factsof World War IIforjust this reason.

Of course, acountry asgreatasAmerica had no problem recovering once theinitialshock wore off, but such destruction is not easilyforgotten.

The resultsofthe attack on Pearl Harbor and World War IIhavebeenpositivefor America.Itbroughtherout of isolation and helped her to restore Britain's power, freeJapanfrommilitaryruleand givedemocracyback to Western Europe,and itestablished amazing new ties betweeen America and Japan.

In a way unprecedented in history,the conquering nationbegan immediately tohelptheconquered nation rebuild. U.S. occupational forcesreplaced atotalitarian monarchy with a democratic, representative government,which still existstoday.

The U.S. government poured ineconomic aid tohelp the conquered nation build a free enterprise business and financialoperation, which still thrivestoday. U.S. missionaries also helped to lift the people from spiritualdevastation.

America putJapanbackon its feet, and today that tiny Asian nation has developed into one of the leading nationsoftheworld